big life. small living.

Fourth of July Weekend

Hey friends and family. Long time, no see. Confession: I only ever blog when holidays or travels come around. So we’ve got a lot to catch up on. Before our holiday weekend round up let’s catch up shall we. What’s new since last we met?

1. Our house is on the market.

We spent the weekend doing some minor repairs while our tenants were out of town. We tackled a few paint projects, yard work, and the tile grout. I was in pain for the hours I spent on hands and knees on this tile floor. I’m happy to report it looks much, much better. Now we are crossing fingers and toes that it will all be worth it in the end. The house hit the market yesterday and we have already had five showing requests.

2. The whole family has taken on the Whole30 challenge. Our girls are dealing with potential food allergies/digestion issues and we figured it would be a great way for Alex and me to reign in our unhealthy habits while also trying to work out what is wrong with Eleanor and Ru. They don’t seem to mind but get really excited when we make one teency weency exception like the gluten free, dairy free sugar cookie Eleanor ate at the potluck this weekend. (topped with coconut cream and sprinkles)

I’ll report back if any of us have any great results from our little healthy eating challenge.

3. Have I mentioned I took a very part time job at Burn Boot Camp as a child care worker? The girls and I are up every morning Monday through Friday to work the 8am class. It’s such a small thing but I love getting to know the other moms better and Eleanor and Ruthie enjoy the daily playtime with their friends. Plus we all enjoy the few extra bucks we have each week to eat out, play and shop.

4. I have a bad obsession with Eleanor Rose dresses. I want to order them all!! I feel like Eleanor really needs this pretty yellow number below. From this summer’s collection we have the flamingos and sailboats and we ordered the hot air balloons (again). It’s getting out of hand!

Ok, now on to the weekend. Since we spent a bunch of it working on the old house we actually didn’t do much in the way of holiday partying. Sunday we hit up church and our Eleanor insisted on bringing her new Adventure Bible we found at a library book sale in Geneva last week.

Of course the fairy wings and rain boots were also a must!

We let the girls take afternoon naps while I whipped up a sweet potato salad and fruit salsa for the potluck at Brittney’s house. It has been so long since we’ve had our little playgroup together so it was a nice reunion of sorts.

We ate dinner, the girls decorated sugar cookies and then we walked to watch the fireworks display.

We were nearly rained out from seeing the fireworks but luckily they began just in time. We had such a fun time on Sunday celebrating the Fourth of July we didn’t actually celebrate much on the actual fourth.

On Monday Alex had to work and the girls and I headed to boot camp. I worked a shift and then worked out at the 9am class. We came home to let Ru nap, had lunch and waited for Alex to get off work. We spent the afternoon at Barnes and Noble and the splash park before eating in at home and putting the girls to bed early. We were all so exhausted.

While it was low key, we still had a fun family day. And just like that it was Tuesday, and now Wednesday. And we are fully in July and summer will be over before we know it!

I am going to try to get back tomorrow with a fun recap of our two week travels through the suburbs of Chicago and our time spent in the city. We have a 14 month old little boy we are keeping for the next 10 days so don’t hold me to any promises for the next two weeks!